I had a mysterious beep in my kitchen that would beep every hour on the dot. It was one of those sounds that you can't tell what direction it comes from. First, I thought it was the microwave, then the stove, then perhaps something in a drawer. It went on for a couple of weeks. When I had time, I'd set an alarm just before it beeped and I would position myself at a different spot in the kitchen to see where it was. Finally, I did that standing in front of the door to the garage. It was in the garage. Apparently to get a deal on internet, I had to take a cable landline telephone, which I didn't use. I had them just install it in the garage. It had a battery pack that had gone bad and beeped every hour to remind me to change it. I unplugged the damn thing.
I have a beeping story, too.
I was renting a townhouse in the suburbs of Washington D.C. where there was an alarm system that was installed by the previous tenant, but not the actual owner of the residence, who was retired and spent most of their days travelling about the globe. The previous renter was supposedly a woman from Australia that had 2 young children and was working for some federal agency in secrecy. When she moved to a new residence, she left in quite a hurry and there was very little information about who she actually was or where she was going to next. The security alarm was not activated when I moved in, but the contract with the security company was with the woman that no longer lived at the townhouse and nobody could reach her. The info I had about her seemed to indicate that she was some sort of language translator that worked with the NSA, CIA, or FBI. In any case, she was gone and nobody knew where she could be reached or nobody was willing to tell me.
There were several devices set up all over the townhouse to activate the alarm if a door or window was breached, including motion detectors covering the main entryways. Even though the alarm was not activated, it was still live, and every time any door or window was opened the main alarm panel made several loud beeps, broadcasting to everyone within earshot that I was either coming, going, or simply opening a window to let in some spring air. Frustrated by the annoyances and being a bit of a tech geek, I went online and researched the model of the alarm panel and found a service option to deactivate the incessant beeping noise. Though, without the original alarm activation/deactivation code, not being the owner of the townhouse, and with the original person that was on record with the alarm system being MIA, all I could do was silence the beeping.
I enjoyed several months of bliss without a peep from the alarm system and had removed all of the lithium batteries from the numerous security devices located all around the townhouse. Then one day I heard that familiar beeping again about every 30 seconds. It sounded to me like the beeping was coming from the alarm panel. There was nothing on the LCD screen that indicated a problem was abound, though we had briefly lost power due to a thunderstorm the night before and I was thinking that perhaps that had reset the alarm beeping and it was trying to warn me that the batteries were low on the external security devices that covered each entryway.
Attempting to go by memory from months before to repeat the steps I researched to silence the beeping, I fumbled around with the security panel and inadvertently ACTIVATED the alarm to the townhouse. Luckily for me, I activated the alarm in a mode that was used for when the residence was at home, so the motion detectors were not tripped with me inside. I was terrified and stuck inside the townhouse with the alarm activated and the owners were on a trip to Alaska for a week.
To be continued....
Anyone else make this kind of mistake?
